NIGHT PATROL

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 July 1930, Page 10

NIGHT PATROL

SOME OF ITS WORK.

SYDNEY, June 14.

The most tedious, and yet sometimes the most exciting, duty in the detective force is to be assigned to one of the wireless night patrols. Night after night, week after week, often month after month, there is nothing to break the almost unbearable monotony of that slow cruising from street" to street, nothing to reward the unremitting vigilance that has to be maintained. Then” there is a crackle of Morse wireless signals from headquarters, tho engine accelerates with a whine of satisfaction, the officers feel their revolvers, and cling to the door handles, ready to spring out when the driver brings the car to a jolting standstill.

A hurried and excited telephone message to the police, a radio message flashed to the nearest patrol, a breathless dash to the scene of the alarm; such have been the preliminaries to some of the best captures that the police have been able to make at night, captures which have made the wire,less patrols an indispensable cog in the police organisation. Some of the stories of the. arrests are well worth repeating. Recently a man noticed another man acting suspiciously in the doorway of a chemist’s shop in GeorgeStreet West, and he immediately telephoned police headquarters. When the wireless message was sent out, the 'nearest patrol was just turning from Fill Street into Martin-place. The car turned into George Street on two wheels, with the detectives hangingon grimly. They arrived at the shop just as a man was levering the lock of the door open. He hardly realised he was cornered until four torches splashed blinding rays of light into his eyes. “How did you know I was here?” he queried. “Well,” said the sergeant, “we’ve got all the doorways linked up.to the car with a wireless beam. You’ve only got to touch a lock and we receive the alarm.”

“Well, that’s the ’attest thing I ever heard,” said the captive angrily. Many stolen cars are recovered by means of the wireless patrol, but one of the best captures was made by a patrol in the charge of Inspector Mackay some time ago. A motorist just emerged from a house in time to see 1113 car being driven off. He quickly telephoned the registration number to headquarters, and, just as speedily, it was sent out to the patrols. Hardly had the number been, received when the stolen car passed the patrol in George Street West. It was overtaken, and tho occupants were arrested.

Within fifteen minutes of its having been, stolen, the car was driven back to its astounded owner. On another occasion a wireless summons resulted in two men being arrested red-handed at the rear of a garage in Old South Head-road. They had just bailed up arid robbed the proprietor, and were stepping into a motor car to flee when the detectives, with their reVolvers drawn, surrounded thorn.

A patrol was passing the Central Railway Station when a message was received that shopbreakers had been disturbed in a tailor’s shop in Parramatta Road, Petersham. The car raced to the shop, and whilst the patrolmen were interviewing the tailor a further wireless message was received that shopbreakers had been seen entering premises about a quarter of a mile away. The car almost flew to the spot, and after two men had been arrested a taxi-cab, which contained a quantity of booty, was seized in a neighbouring lane. On another night a patrol was running quietly down Australia-street, Newtown, when a radio message was received that burglars were in a house only 50 yards from where the patrol was. Tho car pulled up at the house, the detectives surrounded the ..dwelling, and after forcing an entry discovered a man under a bed with a suitcase packed with household goods.

“VOICE HEARD IN THE NIGHT,”

Sergeant Best relates a night patrol story with some amusement. After a tedious, uneventful night, all hopes of securing a good “case” were vanishing. Everywhere the patrol had been was apparently free from crime. The night was very cold, and not a single soul seemed to be abroad in the streets. The car had just turned- into Dowling Street, Redfern, when the wireless operator suddenly ejaculated, “Quick —to the corner of Dowling and Cleveland streets.” . A few seconds they came upon a strange spectacle. A shopkeeper in his night attire was struggling with a man in his doorway, and another one was racing towards Moore Park. The man who was menacing the shopkeeper was easily captured, but the almost impenetrable darkness afforded a sanctuary to the fugitive. However, after much searching in the park he, too, was arrested.

Discussing the case subsequently, the shopkeeper, quite unaware that a neighbour had telephoned police headquarters and that the patrol had come to his rescue in response to a wireless alarm, said, “It was a good job you heard me calling out, but I didn’t think you could hear me in Sydney. However, it was a very still night, and a voice carries a long way.” Frequently, of course, the patrols come across malefactors without the aid of wireless. There was the case of the “Mystery Man,” for instance. This burglar was operating very successfully, and the utmost vigilance failed to lead to his apprehension. However, one night as they were cruising in the eastern suburbs the patrolmen noticed a man and a -woman walking quickly along the street. They Were both immaculately clad in evening dress, arid appeared to have just come from a late dance or some such function. “Now, that’s funny,” said one of the detectives, rubbing fils chin thoughtfully. “I’ve seen that couple bri three successive nights, and oh every occasloii the ‘Mystery Man’ has ‘pulled off’ a good robbery in the Vicinity.” z The patrol continued to creep along and suddenly the detective said, “Anyhow, I’m going to have a word with them.”

Ho jumped out of the car, and as he did so the man in evening dress decamped. Ho was soon captured. It transpired that he had been responsible for a whole series of big robberies, and, upon joining his female accomplice awaiting him in nearby shadows, he had always been able to walk calmly through the suburbs unquestioned.

Perhaps if he had not run away, if he had explained that he was on his way home from some function, he would have completely allayed suspicion.